The Games were marred by the collapse of the bridge, causing some athletes on the bridge who were marching into the Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv for the Opening Ceremony to fall into the highly polluted Yarkon River; the polluted waters were considered a major factor in the deaths and injuries.[5] Four Australians, Greg Small, Elizabeth Sawicki, Yetty Bennett, and Warren Zines, were killed when the bridge, supporting the Australian delegation, collapsed. Sixty others were injured.

After the accident, both the Opening Ceremony and the Games themselves continued with spectators in the stadium not given any information as to what had happened. The ceremony was delayed, and then only the torch lighting aspect of the ceremony took place. Spectators became aware that something was wrong when none of the scheduled events took place, including the march of the athletes, and when they listened to the radio. Many inquests were completed into the collapse of the bridge by both Israeli and Australian authorities and Yoram Eyal was convicted has his culpability in the incident.[6] To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the disaster, on July 20, 2007, a ceremony was held at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park.[5]

1.
Kyrgyzstan
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Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest and its capital and largest city is Bishkek. Kyrgyzstans recorded history spans over 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires, ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the countrys 5.7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians. Kyrgyz is closely related to other Turkic languages, although Russian remains widely spoken and is the official language, the majority of the population are non-denominational Muslims. In addition to its Turkic origins, Kyrgyz culture bears elements of Persian, Mongolian and Russian influence. Kyrgyz is believed to have derived from the Turkic word for forty, in reference to the forty clans of Manas. Literally, Kyrgyz means We are forty, at the time, in the early 9th century AD, the Uyghurs dominated much of Central Asia, Mongolia, and parts of Russia and China. King, Scythians were early settlers in present-day Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 A. D. From the 10th century the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range, in the twelfth century the Kyrgyz dominion had shrunk to the Altay Range and Sayan Mountains as a result of the Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz peacefully became a part of the Mongol Empire in 1207. The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed on the hand by the recent genetic studies. Issyk Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a route for traders, merchants. Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Mongols, in the century by the Manchurian Qing Dynasty. In the late century, the majority part of what is today Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia through two treaties between China and Russia. The territory, then known in Russian as Kirghizia, was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876. The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts against Tsarist authority, in addition, the suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz later to migrate to China. Soviet power was established in the region in 1919. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a republic of the Soviet Union

2.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease

3.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC

4.
Ramat Gan
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Ramat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the major diamond exchanges. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a farming settlement. The mayor of Ramat Gan is Yisrael Zinger, Ramat Gan was established by the Ir Ganim association in 1921 as a satellite town of Tel Aviv. The first plots of land were purchased between 1914–1918, the settlement was initially a moshava, a Zionist agricultural colony that grew wheat, barley and watermelons. The name of the settlement was changed to Ramat Gan in 1923, the settlement continued to operate as a moshava until 1933, although it achieved local council status in 1926. At this time it had 450 residents, in the 1940s, Ramat Gan became a battleground in the countrys language war, A Yiddish language printing press in Ramat Gan was blown up by Hebrew-language extremists. Over the years, the economy shifted from agriculture to commerce, by 1946, the population had grown to 12,000. In 1950, Ramat Gan was recognized as a city, in 1955, it had a population of 55,000. The first mayor was Avraham Krinitzi who remained in office for 43 years, in 1961, the municipal area of Ramat Gan expanded eastward, to encompass the area that includes the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and Bar Ilan University. In 1968, the worlds largest diamond exchange opened in Ramat Gan, the Sheba Medical Center and the Israel Diamond Exchange are located in Ramat Gan. Ramat Gan is located in the Gush Dan metropolitan area east of Tel Aviv and it is bounded in the north by the Yarkon River and in the east by Bnei Brak. Ramat Gan experiences an average of 500 mm of rainfall per year and is located and it is built on limestone hills. Ramat Gan parks include The National Park which covers some 1,900 dunams, 25% of Ramat Gan is covered by public parkland. According to the 1931 census Ramat Gan had 975 inhabitants, in 253 houses, as of 2006, Ramat Gan had 129,700 residents, on an area of 12,000 dunams. The population was growing at a rate of 1. 0% per annum with 90% of this growth coming through natural increase, the population density of the city is 9,822.6 per square kilometer, one of the highest in Israel. In terms of the origin of Ramat Gans residents,42,900 originate from Europe and America,10,200 from Africa,29,200 from Asia, and 40,600 from Israel. 86,200 of the residents of Ramat Gan were born in Israel, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, as of 2001, Ramat Gans socioeconomic ranking stood at 8 out of 10

5.
Maccabiah Games
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The Maccabiah Games first held in 1932, are an international Jewish multi-sport event now held quadrennially in Israel. It is the third-largest sporting event in the world, with 9,000 athletes competing on behalf of 78 countries, the Maccabiah is often referred to as the Jewish Olympics. The 19th Maccabiah, the most recent edition of the Games, was held in 2013, the next edition, the 20th Maccabiah, will be held in July 2017. The most recent Games brought together 9,000 athletes, making it the third-largest international sporting event in the world, the 9000 athletes competed on behalf of 78 countries. Originally, the Maccabiah was held three years, since the 4th Maccabiah, the event is held the year following the Olympic Games. In contrast with other large events such as the Olympics, competitions at the Maccabiah are organized into four distinct divisions – Juniors, Open, Masters. Maccabiah is open to Jewish athletes as well as Israeli athletes regardless of religion, Arab Israelis have also competed in it. The Maccabiah is a forum for Jewish athletes to meet and convene, it provides these athletes with opportunities to explore Israel. The name Maccabiah was chosen after Judah Maccabee, a Jewish leader that defended his country from king Antiochus, modiin, Judahs birthplace is also the starting location of the torch thats used to light the flames at the opening ceremony, a tradition that started at the 4th Maccabiah. The Maccabiah games were the result of a proposal put forward by Yosef Yekutieli in 1929 at the Maccabi World Congress, Yekutieli, who heard about the Stockholm Olympics, wanted to form a representation for Eretz Yisrael. Following the appointment of the new British Palestine High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, the 1st Maccabiah opened on March 28,1932. The Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv, which was built with donations, was filled to capacity, roughly 400 athletes from 18 countries took part in everything from swimming, football, and handball, to various athletics. In the first games, the Polish delegation took first place, following the success of the first games, the 2nd Maccabiah was held from April 2 to 10,1935 despite official opposition by the British Mandatory government. Over 1,300 athletes from 28 nations participated, the 3rd Maccabiah which was originally scheduled for spring of 1938 were postponed until 1950 due to British concerns of large-scale illegal immigration, World War II, and the Independence War. It became the first Maccabiah to be held after the establishment of the State of Israel, starting from the 4th Maccabiah, the games were changed to take place every four years on the year following the Olympics. Four athletes were killed and 63 injured, more than 5,000 participants from over fifty countries competed in those games. Over the last two decades, the number of participants have grown to 7,700 in the 17th Maccabiah, prior to World War II there was an attempt to organize a winter Maccabiah. Due to the warm temperatures in Palestine, the winter Maccabiot were organized in European nations

6.
Taekwondo
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Taekwondo is a Korean martial art, characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. Gyeorugi, a type of sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. The body known for taekwondo in the Olympics is the World Taekwondo Federation, beginning in 1945, shortly after the end of the occupation of Korea by Imperial Japan, new martial arts schools called kwans were opened in Seoul. These schools were established by Korean martial artists who had studied primarily in Japan during the Japanese rule, during this time taekwondo was also adopted for use by the South Korean military, which increased its popularity among civilian martial arts schools. After witnessing a martial arts demonstration by the military in 1952, beginning in 1955 the leaders of the kwans began discussing in earnest the possibility of creating a unified style of Korean martial arts. The name Tae Soo Do was used to describe this notional unified style and this name consists of the hanja 跆 tae to stomp, trample, 手 su hand and 道 do way, discipline. Choi Hong Hi advocated the use of the name Tae Kwon Do, i. e. replacing su hand by 拳 kwon fist, the new name was initially slow to catch on among the leaders of the kwans. In 1959 the Korea Taekwondo Association was established to facilitate the unification of Korean martial arts, in 1966, Choi established the International Taekwon-Do Federation as a separate governing body devoted to institutionalizing a common style of taekwondo. Cold War politics of the 1960s and 1970s complicated the adoption of ITF-style taekwondo as a unified style, the South Korean government wished to avoid North Korean influence on the martial art. Conversely, ITF president Choi Hong Hi sought support for the art from all quarters. In response, in 1973 South Korea withdrew its support for the ITF, after Chois retirement the ITF split in 2001 and then again in 2002 to create three separate federations each of which continues to operate today under the same name. In 1973 the South Korean governments Ministry of Culture, Sports, Kukkiwon now served many of the functions previously served by the KTA, in terms of defining a government-sponsored unified style of taekwondo. In 1973 the KTA supported the establishment of the World Taekwondo Federation to promote taekwondo specifically as an international sport, since 2000, taekwondo has been one of only two Asian martial arts that are included in the Olympic Games. It became an event at the 1988 games in Seoul. In 2010, taekwondo was accepted as a Commonwealth Games sport, Taekwondo is characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. In fact, World Taekwondo Federation sparring competitions award additional points for strikes that incorporate spinning kicks, to facilitate fast, turning kicks, taekwondo generally adopts stances that are narrower and hence less-stable than the broader, wide stances used by martial arts such as karate. The tradeoff of decreased stability is believed to be worth the increase in agility. The emphasis on speed and agility is a characteristic of taekwondo and has its origins in analyses undertaken by Choi Hong Hi

7.
Yarkon River
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The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River, is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon is at Tel Afek, north of Petah Tikva and it flows west through Gush Dan and Tel Avivs Yarkon Park into the Mediterranean Sea. Its Arabic name, al-Auja, means the meandering, the Yarkon is the largest coastal river in Israel, at 27.5 km in length. The Yarkon formed the border of the vilayet of Beirut during the late Ottoman period. The Arabic name of the river, al-Auja, is shared with another stream that flows into the Jordan Valley north of Jericho. In the Mandatory period, the British government granted to Pinhas Rutenbergs Jaffa Electric Company exclusive rights to generate, distribute and these rights were delivered through the “Auja Concession”, which was formally signed on September 12,1921. The district comprised Jaffa, the oldest and at the time still most important town in the area, the fast growing town of Tel Aviv north of it, and other smaller locations. Yet the plan to generate electricity by hydroelectric means never materialized, the river became increasingly polluted after the 1950s, many blaming this on the construction of the Reading Power Station which is situated near its mouth. When the rivers headwaters were diverted to the Negev via the National Water Carrier for irrigation purposes, as sewage replaced the flow of fresh water, habitats were destroyed and flora and fauna disappeared. This was exacerbated by continuous discharges of industrial effluents and municipal sewage into the rivers, on July 14,1997, the infamous Maccabiah bridge collapse led to the death of four athletes, three of which died due to infections caused by exposure to the polluted river water. In 1988, the Yarkon River Authority was established to revitalize the river and make sections of it suitable for sailing, fishing, swimming, Water quality improved after the construction of modern sewage treatment plants in Hod Hasharon and Ramat Hasharon. The river was dredged to restore its depth and natural flow. On July 14,1997, four members of the Australian delegation to the Maccabiah Games were killed and 60 injured as a result of the collapse of a pedestrian bridge over the Yarkon. The deaths were traced to a fungal infection caused by aspiration of the heavily polluted water. Ayalon River, turned artificially into a tributary of the Yarkon Yarkon River Authority Yarkon River Authority

8.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia

9.
Rhythmic gymnastics
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Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or groups of five or more manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus, rope, hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and freehand. Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, the victor is the participant who earns the most points, determined by a panel of judges, for leaps, balances, pirouettes, apparatus handling, and execution. The choreography must cover the floor and contain a balance of jumps, leaps, pivots, balances. Each movement involves a degree of athletic skill. Physical abilities needed by a rhythmic gymnast include strength, power, flexibility, agility, dexterity, endurance, the sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. The largest events in the sport are the Olympic Games, World Championships, European Championships, World Cup and this idea was extended by Catharine Beecher, who founded the Western Female Institute in Ohio, United States, in 1837. In Beechers gymnastics program, called grace without dancing, the young women exercised to music, during the 1880s, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze of Switzerland developed eurhythmics, a form of physical training for musicians and dancers. George Demeny of France created exercises to music that were designed to promote grace of movement, muscular flexibility, all of these styles were combined around 1900 into the Swedish school of rhythmic gymnastics, which would later add dance elements from Finland. Around this time, Ernst Idla of Estonia established a degree of difficulty for each movement, in 1929, Hinrich Medau founded The Medau School in Berlin to train gymnasts in modern gymnastics, and to develop the use of the apparatus. Competitive rhythmic gymnastics began in the 1940s in the Soviet Union, the FIG formally recognized this discipline in 1961, first as modern gymnastics, then as rhythmic sportive gymnastics, and finally as rhythmic gymnastics. The first World Championships for individual rhythmic gymnasts was held in 1963 in Budapest, groups were introduced at the same level in 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rhythmic gymnastics was added to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, however, many federations from the Eastern European countries were forced to boycott by the Soviet Union. Canadian Lori Fung was the first rhythmic gymnast to earn an Olympic gold medal, the group competition was added to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Spanish team won the first gold medal of the new competition with a team formed by Estela Giménez, Marta Baldó, Nuria Cabanillas, Lorena Guréndez, Estíbaliz Martínez, Olympic rhythmic gymnastics is for male and female participants. Gymnasts start at an age and become age-eligible to compete in the Olympic Games. The latter is still an active gymnast in the circuit of the sport with a career dating back to 2001. She and her fellow countrywoman Almudena Cid are among the oldest rhythmic gymnasts ever, Top rhythmic gymnasts must have many qualities, balance, flexibility, coordination, and strength are some of the most important. The FIG selects which apparatus will be used in competitions, only four out of the five possible apparatuses are sanctioned, up to 2010, the clubs were not used at the senior level

10.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province

Now lying within Helsinki, Suomenlinna is a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site consisting of an inhabited 18th century sea fortress built on six islands. It is one of Finland's most popular tourist attractions.